EarthLink Mailstation- Mivo 100 E-mail Appliance (Black)

While these can be a very useful device you need to be careful about where you buy and what you buy. Many of the older MIVO 100 can be set up to use any dial up ISP but later ones are locked to Earthlink and it seems they are discontinuing their service. I bought two on eBay for $10 ea plus S&H - these are the models with the Yahoo function (now abandoned) and I can configure them to my local ISP. If you need support there is a Yahoo group which supports them (search for 'mailstation') where tips are swapped. Models other than the MIVO 100 are unlikely to be configurable as is, although work is progressing on reflashing all models so they can be used as a small computer as well as a mail device. BTW, they also have a send only fax system built in which can be used no matter what.

All in all a device with potential . . . . but!

I am really not sure if the appliance works or nor, since Earthlink says they are unable to activate any accounts at the present time, and have been unable to do so now for 2 weeks, today they told me to call back in another 5 days! Every time I call I get another story - so if I am ever able to actually use the device I will try to let you know.

My experience with Mailstation started over six months ago. Since then I have had less than two weeks of email service. Just a few of the problems have included a Mailstation arriving with a broken screen, six weeks of phone calls to finally prove the replacement did not, would not and never would work, a month waite for another replacement to find it was in shipping, two weeks later to find no record of replacement, etc, etc. One technique is never being allowed to talk to the same person twice. "I will call you on Monday to verify it is working." "This will definitely fix the problem." "Sorry, you can not talk to a supervisor." "We will send you a refund in one month." "The refund will be posted in two weeks." "We have sent the refund to your credit card company but it will take them two or more months to post the refund." "The problem is with your credit card company. We have sent them the refund." I do not think so.
The Dilbert cartoon is Mailstation.

MailStation was wonderful for the first 1.5 years of service under CIDCO. Bought it for my computer-illiterate 77 year old mother so she could keep in touch with family members now scattered around the world. She is totally averse to computers (it took a few years to even get comfortable tapping numbers into a microwave oven), but she took to the MailStation right off. I was very impressed.

Then, ~8 months ago, CIDCO was bought by Earthlink. It has been astounding how that company has managed to foul it up.

They have changed phone numbers, network numbers and then sent out INCORRECT instructions to customers to reprogram their machines, as if customers of such an appliance have any idea at all what they are talking about. Earthlink, for some reason, thinks MailStation users are hip 20-something folk.

There have been at least 3 major configuration problems due to Earthlink [changing] around ... the system. Each has taken weeks to resolve. My poor mother has actually had to struggle with tech support people who walked her through the reprogramming INCORRECTLY 3 TIMES (after the usual 45 minute holding period). The 4th time, some guy says "oh no, that's not right -- you need a 4 digit number there, not a 6 digit number" after the previous people had said "No, you need this 6 digit number there". And the 4-digit guy was correct, meaning the first 3 people were not.

There have been billing problems (all fouled up), references to web sites where I could supposedly fix things for her that don't even recognize the "mailstation.com" domain, e-mails sent to her not delivered, e-mails delivered multiple times, and incomprehensible notifications that her "account" is full.

This last one is fascinating. Her unit is text only, thus if someone sends her a message with an attachment, the attachment is retained at the server. She has no way of accessing it.

Since Earthlink took over, these attachments are apparently accumulated until her mailbox is "full", whereupon Earthlink sends her a message telling her to delete them. However, she has no mechanism for deleting them, because the box that sits on her desk hasn't the capability. This shows that Earthlink not only doesn't know who their customers are but isn't really clear on the system itself.

So this wonderful gadget she was so pleased with has now turned into a source of anxiety for her; For an "appliance" like this, with the customers it was targeted to, to change things just for the sake of changing things, is totally unacceptable. Stability and reliability are the only important criteria to consider...

Bought this for my daughter in Hawaii. Great way to keep in touch with friends and family, right. Wrong. She can get in maybe 8 sentences in an email if lucky and only to certain people. Friends who have urls other than aol or earthlink are out of luck. Her attempts at customer service have been fruitless, until she told them she was shipping it back to them. Then there was all kinds of help, but too late. Frustrating to her and to us. Now, it comes back to us to try and get our money back on it. Didn't get a rebate either. That's another story.